open days- what are they for?

[pugsandseals]

Several open days coming up in the next few weeks for dd's transfer into year 7. Does anybody have some good general questions to ask about the schools whilst being shown around? I have a huge fear of getting in a complete muddle about which schools offer what & it's such an important decision! DD ended up changing schools in year 3 because we make the wrong decison in reception year & I am so scared of mucking this one up too!!!

Oh, look a bit more, there was a thread with (literally) about 100 questions to ask. Complete overkill in my mind, but I guess it's what some folk need for peace of mind. I can't accept the "It's such an important decision!" view, but if you do,you probably want to find that thread.

We have a choice of about 4 state + one private (realistically). So I am concentrating on what the main differences are between them.

Here you go.

To be honest, rather than going armed with tonnes of questions you are better off looking and listening to start with. Read prospectuses and check out the school websites. If you still have questions after that then ask for an appointment. Just try and get a gut feel for the schools and follow your instinct.

I would go with your gut feeling of the school to start with. When we looked with my DD1 she loved the secondary school as it felt really nice and was really put off by the grammar school. She felt that they didn't really care about the children, just how clever they were.

She is now in Y11 at the secondary school and is doing really well.....

We are about to start the Open Day things with DD, who is just in Y6. We will go with DD, have a look round, maybe a chat about activities (see if anything linked to DD's interests for example), types of subjects they offer esp beyond the Eng/Maths/Science, etc. and generally just get a feeling for the place. Then we will call the schools and arrange an individual tour of the school on a working school day.

Gut feeling was how we chose DD's primary school and that worked out well. Hopefully it will for secondary.

We just walked round and listened - some schools send you round in groups with sixth formers leading - they are the best ones to get the REAL insight into how the school is..

Mostly the open days are just to get an overall "feel" for what a school is like - we went on one today with my youngest(my eldest is already at the school) and it was just so nice to see it on a "working" day, seeing the kids dressed nicely, holding open doors for you - watching classes in action can give you a feel for discipline issues in a school too..